John Blake, who won two Super Bowl rings as the Cowboys’ defensive line coach and is best remembered for his stint as head coach at Oklahoma, has died at the age of 59.
Barry Switzer, who coached with Blake both at Oklahoma and with the Cowboys, told Dean Blevins of KWTV that Blake had a heart attack while out for a walk today.
“I recruited him out of Sand Springs. He played for me and captained for me. He coached for me. I was close to John,” Switzer told Eric Bailey of the Tulsa World.
Blake was a nose guard at Oklahoma from 1979 to 1982 and then had a coaching career that saw him work as an assistant at Tulsa, Oklahoma and for the Cowboys before he became head coach at Oklahoma. The Sooners struggled through a rough stretch during Blake’s tenure, and he went 12-22 in his three years as the head coach.
After leaving Oklahoma he had stints coaching the defensive line at Mississippi State, Nebraska and North Carolina. His last coaching job was coaching the Bills’ defensive line in 2016.
